2012 Republican presidential candidate and occasional Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty wrote an op-ed at Politico earlier this week. He wrote about our national deficit and, probably without any intent to be ironic, entitled it "Ponzi Scheme on the Potomac." The thing is Pawlenty wants everyone here in Minnesota who knows him to forget that he's been playing a Ponzi scheme on Minnesotans.
First he explained what a Ponzi scheme is. When he lists all the things he thinks prove the federal government is doing is a Ponzi scheme, he probably doesn't want anyone to know that he's done the same thing to Minnesota. Finally gets to the crux of the matter:
That's why we need an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to require a balanced budget with limited exceptions for war, natural disasters and other emergencies. Every state but one has a balanced budget requirement, and while such requirements make for difficult decisions, they work.
The president also should be given line-item veto authority power as a budget enforcement tool. The experience of the states shows that this is an effective way of preventing excessive spending.
[my emphasis]
Imagine Pawlenty with that power in MN? Oh wait, you say? Wouldn't that be something like unallotment? Think about it!?! He could do to our nation what he's done to Minnesota!
Governor Pawlenty's latest article is just the latest example of his pandering to his party's right wing in an embarrassing effort to cash in on public concerns over the economy, and cozy up to the Tea Party movement. While the fear-mongering from the ultra-right is nothing new, associating the federal government with a Ponzi scheme takes it to a whole new level. Governor Pawlenty offers advice about federal budgeting, calls for amendments to the United States Constitution, and concludes by writing: "Ponzi schemes succeed because people want to believe in a free lunch as long as the easy money is rolling in. But a day of reckoning always arrives, and ours is right around the corner. The sooner we open our eyes, the sooner we can clean up this mess."
Tim Pawlenty giving advice about budgeting is like Bernie Madoff giving advice about investments. For seven years as governor, Tim Pawlenty has cooked Minnesota's books so that he can pretend he has kept his no-new-taxes pledge. He has fraudulently called some taxes "fees." He has pushed many costs of state government down onto local governments. He has used accounting gimmicks to push current expenses into future budget cycles. And he has bankrupted Minnesota, which now faces the worst deficit in its 151-year history, and which must borrow in order to make payroll.
